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Zero Authority: For beginning bloggers and entrepreneurs

About This Show

Show Info:
Everyone has a show about internet millionaires, but who has a show for you? The Zero Authority Podcast is the place to start for beginning bloggers and non-technical entrepreneurs who don’t know where to start. Dave Noonan and Steve Churchill are 40-something family guys, novice bloggers themselves who walk you through the basics of your website and how to create content to reach your audience, grow your e-mail list, and eventually make money from your website, describing what has worked – and not worked – for them. This is not a podcast for people looking to get rich quick based on advice from a guru. Dave and Steve give real-world advice to real people. Simple but edgy, Zero Authority is the show for the rest of us who haven’t figured it all out yet.

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Most Recent Episode

21: It's Never Too Early To Monetize Your Blog

Oct 10 16
·
25 minutes

Intro
Steve talks about getting rear-ended in his VW Turbo Diesel in Philly, blowing off calling the police (or doing any information gathering, for that matter…) and then ending up with whiplash. Damn!
<He’s ok – BTW>
Dave’s wife backed into a concrete pole and DID call the cops to file a report. 🙂
On with the show!
Zero Authority Toolbox: GIMP
Steve recommends using GIMP, a free tool that can be used to edit photos in a variety of ways, not unlike Photoshop. But free.
And with a weird animal mascot.
Specifically, Steve walks through a series of steps you can take in GIMP to resize photos to ensure they don’t slow your site down and cause visitors to bounce…which would be annoying, possibly cause an IRS audit and end up with your wife leaving you.
In a nutshell, when you open an image in GIMP:
MENU > IMAGE > SCALE IMAGE > WIDTH (400/500?) / HEIGHT > FILE (Export As) > (checkbox) SHOW PREVIEW IN IMAGE WINDOW > QUALITY SELECTOR WINDOW…DIAL QUALITY DOWN TO REACH 60-70KB IMAGE SIZE
Super helpful tool. Try it.
Main Topic: Why you need to monetize your blog. Now.
Dave kicked things off with a few reasons to monetize that he’s been kicking around as a blogger who is NOT selling anything yet:
* Credibility (or perception of, at least): If someone is selling something you almost always attribute a level of credibility to that person. Use that to your advantage.
* Testimonials on your sales also boost credibility – social proof.
* Your Deserve it: you work your ass off creating good content (or at least you should) and giving away your best stuff makes sense. But eventually you need to charge for your efforts.
* Break out of the “impostor syndrome!” If you have a blog – you have expertise and value to offer.
* Give yourself a chance
* The Nice Guy: if being a little selfish doesn’t float your boat – how about monetizing in a way that can help others? Affil